Stephanie Atkinson, Elected MICYRN Board Chair Congratulations to Stephanie Atkinson, professor in the department of pediatrics at McMaster University, who was recently elected Chair of the MICYRN Board of Directors for a two-year term.

Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, announced $2.4 million in grants for 22 bold ideas to address the challenge of saving and improving the lives of mothers, newborns and children.

Council of Canadian Academies Releases Its 2013/14 Annual Report. This year's report, entitled Evidence First, illustrates their progress in achieving an ambitious, aspirational vision -- to be a trusted voice for science in the public interest.

The Placental Research Network has put out a final call for completion of its survey on the research interests of placental scientists around the world and to identify available bio-specimens. The survey is for scientists who operate a biobank and/or have bio-specimens they would consider sharing.

MICYRN held its annual general meeting this year on June 5 in Vancouver in conjunction with the CCCHR AGM and CCHCSP Trainee Symposium. Next year’s AGM is planned for Halifax.

Issue 8 of the PTN Post is now available online. It features an article on MICYRN’s role in opening sites for the NIH—Pediatric Trials Network project, “Pharmacokinetics of Understudied Drugs Administered to Children per Standard of Care (POPS)”.

The “MobileKids: Involving youth research advisors to create health tools to increase children's levels of physical activity,” has been selected as part of YTH Live 2014.

MICYRN has partnered with Maelstrom to utilize their suite of methods, open-source software, and expert advice needed to support valid data comparison and harmonization across cohort studies.

MICYRN is now listed on Orphanet and working with the CIHR Institute of Genetics to provide content about rare disease resources available in Canada.

IHDCYH is launching a unique funding opportunity, IHDCYH Talks” competition, to invite researchers to produce a short video to share their research and ideas in the area of reproductive, child and youth health.

If you or someone you care for has experience with the drug infliximab (Remicade) for the treatment of any of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic psoriasis, or plaque psoriasis, your response to a survey is urgently needed. It has been prepared by the Consumer Advocare Network, a nonprofit patient organization. Your answers are confidential and will not be individually identified. Only anonymous summarized information will be submitted to the CDR.

MICYRN wrote a letter describing how our initiatives can support the research team applying for the Brain Canada Platform Support Grant application, which addresses the challenge by developing and applying a Canada-wide framework for brain data harmonization that is integrated into funding agency policies and scientific practices. The application was submitted by OCBN.

MICYRN wrote a letter in support of a successful CIHR Planning Grant, entitled “Long-term Cardio-Respiratory Outcomes of Extremely Pre-term: A Workshop to Guide Development of a Current Canadian Study” (PI, S. Katz, CHEO).

The Workshop Executive Summary of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Through the Lifespan Workshop, which MICYRN members participated in, was recently released.

“Using Mobile Technology and Gaming to Engage Children in Physical Activity” has been accepted as a workshop for the Global Summit presented by Active Healthy Kids Canada.

KidsCan is a youth research engagement initiative that directly involve youths as advisors and partners in the research and development of innovative mobile-based solutions to the health challenges they face.
More information is provided here in this KidsCan article

The 47th Banff international Conference on Behavioural Science"Banff, AB
March 15-18, 2015